State Rep. Tommy Benton created a firestorm of controversy two weeks ago when he downplayed the racial violence created by the KKK in the years after the Civil War.
According to Rep. Benton, the Klan “was not so much a racist thing but a vigilante thing to keep law and order. It made a lot of people straighten up. I’m not saying what they did was right. It’s just the way things were.”
Rep. Benton is a retired history teacher and friend, but on this issue, I have to part ways with his interpretation of history.
There are several examples of Klan violence in our local history. One Klan story from here even led to a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision in 1884.
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Dear Governor Deal:
When I began growing my medical marijuana plant last month as a political statement about Georgia’s need to make cannabis oil available for medical use, I had no idea the kind of nerve it would hit. Dozens of people from all across Georgia have contacted me in support of making medical grade cannabis oil available in Georgia.

Governor, it’s a huge issue, much larger than I ever imagined. This issue has, in just a few years time, jumped from the political fringes into the political mainstream. It’s an issue that crosses political party bounds in a way that a few years ago, was unthinkable.

Some of the strongest support I’ve had comes from very conservative Republicans, your core supporters, Governor. Ministers have called me in support. The current runs deep and wide.

So how did a conservative state like Georgia go from being closed to any debate about the medical use of marijuana to having a majority of citizens support it?
Governor, a little background for you to consider:
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As I announced three weeks ago, I’m growing a marijuana plant as an act of civil disobedience to bring attention to a much-needed medical law in the Georgia Legislature.

Last year, the Legislature approved allowing certain medical patients to have up to 20 ounces of medical cannabis oil. But the state didn’t create a legal way for patients to get the oil in the state.

This year, another bill is pending in Atlanta that would allow a handful of state regulated companies to grow, harvest and produce the medical cannabis oil in Georgia for those patients. The state House supports the idea, but the state Senate is unclear and Gov. Nathan Deal has spoken against it.
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I’m writing this editorial a few minutes after having smoked medical marijuana. But I’m not high, or as some phrase it, “stoned.”

Last week I wrote about my plans to grow a marijuana plant as an act of civil disobedience to Georgia laws that prevent the growing of cannabis plants for medical research.

Evidence suggests that some compounds in the cannabis plant, particularly CBD, are effective in helping several serious medical conditions, including seizures.

Since I have a son who has suffered uncontrolled seizures for 15 years, this is an issue that I have a personal interest in. If there is a compound that might help him and others who suffer from seizures, then I don’t care if it’s from a marijuana plant or a jalapeno pepper.
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BETHLEHEM, THE WEST BANK, ISRAEL —
It’s cool tonight as I look to the sky in this sacred town, the birthplace of Christianity. But I don’t see a bright, shining star to the east, only a sad looking half moon floating lazily in the west.
I’m in Bethlehem just days before Christmas. Actually, I’m in a suburb, the small town of Beit Sahur, a middle class community of about 15,000 people just a mile or two from Bethlehem proper. It is here that legend says an angel appeared to shepherds in a field announcing the birth of the Christ child.
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The bodies of those murdered in California last week were not yet cold when President Obama and other left-leaning politicians attempted to make political hay of the tragedy. Within hours, Democrats played the “gun control” card in an effort to politicize the event for partisan effect.
Their mendacious message: “It was those mean Republicans who oppose gun control who killed those people.”
Dishonest politicians never let a good tragedy go to waste.
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PARIS — It was cold in Paris last week. A wet cold, the kind that makes the traveler glad for the hundreds of small cafes along the boulevards as places of respite for a hot latte or a glass of wine.
It was at five of these cafes, in addition to a concert hall and stadium, that terrorists committed mass murder here two weeks ago. Parisians are still shaken by those killings, but seemingly stoic as they go about their daily lives.
Those murders happened a long way from the traditional tourist sites of central Paris. Ever since 9-11, Paris museums and monuments have checked backpacks and screened entrants. That kind of security seemed no different last week than it had on my previous visits.
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If there was any doubt that inane political correctness thinking is in control of today’s university campuses, events at the University of Missouri last week confirmed the worst. After several weeks of protests, including threats by black Mizzou football players to boycott upcoming games, the president and chancellor of the university quit.
In their wake lies a naked shell of what today’s higher education has become: The home of a culture which cultivates a sense of victimhood and hyper-sensitivity, especially among young black students.
This isn’t Berkeley California in the 1960s we’re talking about. This is the American Midwest, a place where there is still some semblance of common sense among most people.
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